Re: [IRCA] Broadcast Automation

[LAWRENCE STOLER <lstoler99@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The first time I saw an automation system was in the late '60s at a station 
in Connecticut.  The FM was doing separate programming from 11 AM to 4 P.M. 
and they were using a gates system that had reel to reel tape decks.

They ran a beautiful music format in mono.  The music came from a company 
based in California called Total Music.  I have no idea what became of that 
company or what they are doing today.

One day while I was at the station, the tapes ran backwards.  At the end of 
each selection, an announcer was supposed to come on and say what song was 
heard and who did it.   Needless to say when the tapes ran backwards, the 
result was interesting.

When a problem took place, an alarm would ring.  This did happen but no one 
at the station paid attention.

Years later, I worked at the same station and they were using a Computer 
Concepts system which had 24 trays of cartridges.  Unistar or United 
Stations programmed the system with the Oldies Channel format.  Things had 
to be timed exactly right or the wrong event would go on the air.

The best example of what could go wrong came during the pause in Strawberry 
Fields Forever by the Beatles.  If a pause of more than eight seconds 
occurred, an alarm would go off.  This happened frequently during that song 
and on other occasions.

Those are some of my experiences with automation.

Larry Stoler

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Patrick Griffith, N0NNK / WPE9HVW" <AM-DXer@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, August 08, 2006 10:10 PM
Subject: [IRCA] Broadcast Automation


> Someone mentioned early broadcast automation systems. The first one that
> I saw was at WZEE (Z-104) in Madison WI around 1975. To me broadcast
> automation was a new and exciting technology at the time. I'm not
> positive but I think this may have been a Schafer system. It occupied an
> entire wall of a large room with about eight 19" racks full of rotating
> cartridge carousels, reel to reel players, and assorted electronics. It
> was absolutely amazing to watch it in operation. I was especially
> impressed by the two reel to reel players that contained an announcement
> of every minute of the 12-hour day. One had the even minutes and one had
> the odd minutes. One was always at ready cue while the other was
> updating to the next position. When the automation called for a time
> announcement the system would play the current time, such as "it's four
> thirty-two", just as if the announcer was live. WZEE was running the
> fantastic Drake Chenault CHR format at the time. I had no idea that my
> favorite station in the northern IL / southern WI area was automated,
> and programmed from the west coast, until I dropped in for a visit. I
> stood in amazement watching the system operate for a couple hours. They
> practically had to drag me out of the place. As I recall there were 3 or
> 4 large cartridge carousels containing ad spots, promos, news, local
> weather, and new music releases that weren't yet on the reels. In
> addition to the 2 time reels I believe there were 2 or 3 reels that
> contained current music selections and 2 or 3 more that contained
> oldies. Many of the music selections had pre or post announcements built
> in to add to the "live" effect. Of course today this can all be done on
> a desktop computer. But that isn't nearly as much fun to watch.
>
> Not long after this someone got the idea that the public might enjoy
> watching one of these automation systems in operation. In the late 70s
> WYBR in Rockford IL put their automation system on display in the
> largest shopping mall in northern Illinois. The call letters reflected
> their slogan "the Yellow Brick Road". The floor of the Cherryvale Mall
> actually had a yellow brick road winding through it that you could
> follow to the viewing area and watch either the system operating in full
> automation during the evening and weekends or the disc jockey operating
> the system in live assist mode during weekdays. The last time I visited
> Rockford the radio station was long gone from the mall. But the yellow
> brick road was still there over 25 years later.
>
> Patrick Griffith, Westminster CO
> http://community.webtv.net/N0NNK/
> http://community.webtv.net/AM-DXer/
>
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